Late news for yesterday (8/4) when there were 3 Gadwall and a Drake Shoveler as well as an early Common Sandpiper, at least 3 Willow Warblers and 2 Chiffchaff. Ian Kimber also had an adult Kittiwake for about 20 minutes in the morning

Mon 2nd April: 10:00 - 11:40
As the weather was rubbish at home, we set out here thinking that at least there were paths to walk on and it wouldn't be too busy. Well we certainly didn't see many people or birds.
- 3 Great Crested Grebe
- 3 Redwing
- c4 Skylark displaying
- 1 Curlew heard
- 6+ Meadow Pipit
- small finch flock
- 2 or 3 Lesser Black-backed Gull
- pr Goosander
Just a few Mallard and Canada Geese at the sailing club.

Amazingly a raft of 19 Kittiwakes were on the Lake this morning at 10 am - mostly adults in summer plumage but 3 in winter plumage and unusually one first winter bird. The most I‚ve ever seen here by some margin - quite incredible - although Ian Kimber once had 45 here in the nineties!
March tends to be the month for seeing Kittiwakes here when they are virtually annual and I suspect that the birds are overland migrants cutting across from Liverpool Bay to the North Sea - days such as today with mist over the Pennines presumably bring them down here. We never get any here in Autumn so I wonder if they migrate by another route in autumn.
No sign of the Glaucous Gull today although it was here on Sunday (4/3)

Excellent view of a Snipe this afternoon using its long beak to dig in the snow in the field bounded by Peanock Lane and Wildhouse Lane.† I have had a couple of very brief long distance glimpses of a wader flying around this area over the last few days, so this was probably it.† It sometimes seems to be heading towards the flooded fields near Shaw Moss Farm.

Hi Richard. Do you mean 1894 for the date of your book. Just wondered as my birding 'primer' from my pre-teens in the late 1950's was the Observer's Book of Birds and that lists both Glaucous and Iceland Gull as separate species, at a time before Rock and Water Pipits had been split. You're right about the derivation of the name though. The Classical Greek Hyperboreans were people who lived beyond the North Wind (Boreas).

I have some info which may be of help?? I have an old 1984 book on English bird names and a bird scientific name dictionary. 1st, both iceland and glaucous gulls are very simular according to several references. Glaucous in English is named so due to its greyish blue appearence- hence the Latin name glaucoides means "resembling or likeness" and derived from "glaucus" meaning "blue-grey". Unfortunately, the iceland gull isn't mentioned in the English bird name book but i have enouth information to make me think that at are sometime in the past the iceland gull may not have been well known or marked as a sepetate species at some point. So I assume from this that the Iceland gull may have possibly been mistaken for the glaucous gull or vice versa (but this is my personal guess). I say this because as in the previous post- glaucous gull ranges further north- hence the latin "hyperboreus" which means "northern - a people of the extream north" so perhaps when a simular looking smaller gull was separated, the English name sruck with the original find (glaucous gull) but because the glaucous gull lived further north- the latin name was changed to mean "further north" whilst the Iceland gull scientific name stuck (for its greyish blue look) and just it's English name was changed. Hope this is correct and that it helps.

-- Edited by Richard Thew on Sunday 25th of February 2018 08:13:37 AM

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I heard a lot of chatter coming from my garden today and discovered it was a Sparrowtalk. .
https://www.flickr.com/photos/135715507@N06

The scientific names may reflect the breeding distribution? I suggest that hyper = extra, and perhaps boreus (aka boreal) refers to the Arctic, which would give us more or less high Arctic - fittingly, as Glaucous Gulls breeding range is truly circumpolar and generally further north, whereas Iceland Gull is largely confined as a breeder to Southern Greenland and NE Canada around Baffin and adjacent islands.

Glaucous Gull reappeared around 14.45 and was highly active, taking off and circling among the dozens of other gulls. It took a whole crust of bread and was pursued by various other gulls trying to steal this, eventually finding a peaceful spot on the water over towards the far side, where it stayed until I left soon after 3pm. Beautiful bird with stunningly close views.

Colour ringed Black-headed Gull ( KFL4 ) , which I reported from Hollingworth Lake on 07/02/18 , was ringed as a pullus at Lake Babite,near Laci in Latvia on 27/06/15. It was subsequently reported twice from Dublin,Ireland in December 2015.It was then sighted at Bray harbour, Co. Wicklow in January, 2016,before being reported back near Dublin in February '16. †A bit of a gap then, until July 2017, when KFL4 was reported twice from Pumpuri, Jurmala in Latvia. †The next reported sighting was mine on 07/02/18 at Hollingworth. It has since been reported again at Hollingworth on the 12th of †Feb.

Quite fascinating to discover the traveling habits of an often overlooked species.I wonder where he'll turn up next!

A 2nd visit to treat my mother to a new tick after she has recovered from that nasty flu for the glaucous gull.

Arrived at 12:30pm and straight away the glaucous gull showed very well and unlike my last visit, he actually landed very close on the ramp and the lighting was much better too! Another fantastic visit and experience for both of us.

Also noteworthy was common gulls (1st winter and adult) 1 fully hooded black headed gull, 2 lesser black backed gulls and 1 juvenile herring gull. Also 1 pochard drake seen on the pools from the train near smithy Bridge station.